Andy watched Sharon for a long while. He stood as far out of the way has he could while still giving her the support she needed by his presence. When the team had been together, it seemed obvious how the tasks needed to be divided. It was already agreed upon by all parties, that if the Captain's home was compromised, Rusty would go with Provenza. It had taken awhile, but even DDA Rios came around and agreed with the Captain's assessment that the only reason Rios even had a case was because Rusty was where he was. Moving him to one of the other squad member's houses was the logical second placement, and of those, the ones that made the most sense were Buzz and Provenza. Buzz didn't carry a gun or a badge, so that ruled him out immediately. Provenza it was.

From there it wasn't a huge step in logic to concede that Julio and Amy were the best choices to provide a second line of protection. Sometimes Andy didn't know how Julio did it, staying in position for hours and still be able to hit a target or take down a suspect with ease. Andy knew his strengths, and he knew his limitations. While he was a good shot and got the job done, his skills came from other areas. After seeing Amy on the job, Andy recognized the same ability in her, and credited it to their experience in the military. Amy and Julio were the right people to send with Provenza, no question. It helped that neither had outside obligations which pulled away from their focus.

That left three of the squad. Tao's gift to Major Crimes had always been his intellect. Distracting him from analyzing data was not in their best interests, so he was out. There was no way he could stand guard duty and figure out what they needed to find Rusty's attacker. Besides, Andy and Provenza knew while Sharon tolerated Tao more than most, even she would go crazy if she had to have him around constantly.

And Tao needed Buzz.

That left him.

"Penny for your thoughts, Lieutenant," Sharon said, as she studied him.

Andy chuckled. "You won't be getting your money's worth."

Sharon smiled at the comment, then left the front entranceway and made her way into the kitchen. She opened the fridge door to pull out the wine, then thought better of it, and turned instead to make tea.

"It doesn't bother me," Andy said, having followed her into the kitchen and saw where her hand went into the fridge.

"It's still not something I want to depend on," she said quietly.

Andy shrugged, "If someone can handle it, sometimes that burn is exactly the distraction you need. Me, I can't handle it, but lots of other people can. Besides, coffee at this hour is a bad idea, and I never thought herbal tea hit the spot."

Sharon snorted softly, then opened the fridge again. "You're sure?" she asked one last time.

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Thank you, Lieutenant."

Andy continued to watch her, hands in his pockets in an attempt to be casual. Her back was still ramrod straight, and her motions looked very deliberate.

Realizing his watching might be the problem, he went into the living room and sat down, then grabbed one of the books from the coffee table.

"You can turn on the TV if you want, Lieutenant, I'm sure there is something that can help you pass the time."

"Tell me something. This whole 'Captain' and 'Lieutenant' thing... we gonna keep doing this all night? I mean, I can if it makes this easier, but I thought we'd kinda gotten past that."

Sharon sighed deeply and let her shoulders down for the first time. "I'm sorry Andy. You're right. It's not as though you've never been here before."

"Yeah, but not like this. I'm here for you, whatever you need. You need to talk, we talk. You need to be quiet, we're quiet."

"What I need is for this to be over, and for Rusty to be home."

"It will be. We'll get the creep, Rusty will testify, Stroh will be put away - hopefully in solitary so he can't pass any more messages - and life will get back to normal."

"What's normal?" Sharon sighed derisively, as she laid her head back on the sofa.

Andy moved from his chair to sit on the sofa beside her, then gently placed his arm behind her shoulders and pulled her towards him. "Hey, it's okay. We're all in this together and we'll get the job done. We always do."

Sharon smiled slightly and allowed herself to be pulled into Andy's partial hug. "How'd you end up babysitting me, anyway?"

"I pulled the short stick."

She laughed for the first time, and Andy relaxed a little. Then she tensed again.

"I guess it makes sense to put you in Rusty's room. The sofa isn't going to be comfortable for a whole week. You are staying the week, aren't you, or are you taking turns?"

"Listen Sharon, it's not going to be that bad. I can be on the sofa if you need me here. I'm not taking over Rusty's spot. He'll be back."

"I know..." she whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about. This isn't just about work, okay? It's my turn to be your buffer. And tomorrow you'll be seeing the kid at the station anyway. We're all just having one big sleepover."

He could feel Sharon relax again, and was pretty sure she was smiling slightly.

"He will probably spend the week eating toxins and loving it."

It was Andy's turn to smile, "Yeah... home cooking isn't exactly Provenza's style."

"It will take a month for his system to recover," she continued.

"He'll be begging you for vegetables by the time he returns."

"And his own room. I know he's young, but being on the Lieutenant's sofa for a week isn't going to be easy."

"I'll try not to rub it in the kid's face that I have his nice, comfortable, queen sized bed to myself."

Sharon chuckled again, bringing a smile to Andy's face.

"I should get up and make that bed," she said, but didn't move.

"We've got time. Let's just sit for a bit. You need to relax yourself. You sure you didn't cut your foot when you ran down all those stairs?"

"Me? No, not even a stubbed toe. I'm fine. I just wish I'd shot him."

Andy didn't have anything to say to that, so he simple squeezed her shoulder. Empty platitudes wouldn't help, and he wasn't about to make promises they both knew couldn't be guaranteed.

After awhile, Sharon leaned forward to pick up the remote, then sat back and turned it to the sports channel. A hockey game was playing, and the Kings were two goals ahead in the third period. "This will be over soon," she commented.

"You know hockey, too?" he couldn't help being impressed.

"You know Andy, that short stick you pulled doesn't mean I'm bad company," she said, sitting up and looking at him.

Andy chuckled, "Yeah, well the stick wasn't that short. Besides," he smiled the smile he knew got to her, "we all know I'm your favourite."